RISD Research Perspectives

RISD Research Perspectives is a media series that highlights the intersections of art, design, theory, social justice, and research in interviewed conversations within the RISD community, its faculty, and students. The series was conceived and created in Fall 2020 by documentary filmmaker, design researcher, and THAD faculty member Holly Gaboriault [MA Global Arts + Cultures '21] while working as a graduate student with Soul Brown, Director of Research. The RISD Research Department sustains and encourages the culture of inquiry at the Rhode Island School of Design. Offering a platform for art and design research initiatives, we provide opportunities for initiatives and facilitation towards diverse types of research that contribute new insight and advance practice through exploration of materials, techniques, contexts, and scholarships.

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RISD Research Perspectives | Bhen Alan

Bhen Alan, RISD Research, and Holly Gaboriault

Bhen Alan, MFA PT 22 incorporates elements of painting, weaving, sculpture, and performance to address issues of identity across immigration, memory of place, queerness, and ecological responsibility. Born and raised in Tuguegarao City, he fuses painting, installation, costumery, and performance to investigate the intersections of design with traditional Filipino weaving and craftsmanship. Researching traditional Filipino rituals and sourcing local materials, Alan works on the peripheries of identity, memory, sustainability, and recycling to create immersive experiences in topics ranging from immigration and trauma to celebratory affirmations. The resulting work brings visibility to the complexities of global culture and personhood. Alan is the recipient of the Fulbright award 2022-2023, where he will travel to the Philippines to study indigenous mat weaving, technique, rituals, history, and indigenous storytelling. This series highlights the intersections of art, design, theory, social justice and research in interviewed conversations within the RISD community, its faculty and students.

Written | Directed | Filmed | Edited by Holly Gaboriault [MA Global Arts + Cultures '21]
Original Music by Antonio Forte
RISD Research Perspectives | Rey Londres

Rey Londres, RISD Research, and Holly Gaboriault

Rey Londres is a Cuban-born photographer who challenges the stereotypes and boundaries for accessibility in professional portraiture. Throughout his time at RISD, curatorial agency and activism have been the cornerstones for both their studio projects and community engagement, including an artist residency with the Providence-based Haus of Glitter. Their work with risdARC (Anti-Racism Coalition) provided a platform for co-organizing the 2022 Black Biennial, the first exhibition of its kind at RISD highlighting voices of local BIPOC communities. Promoting community care and documenting the undocumented are what Rey fluidly interweaves into a practice centered around visibility, challenging power systems, and embracing the multiplicitous identities in us all. This series highlights the intersections of art, design, theory, social justice and research in interviewed conversations within the RISD community, its faculty and students.

Written | Directed | Filmed | Edited by Holly Gaboriault [MA Global Arts + Cultures '21] Original Music by Mike Delick Music Supervision by Elementary Music
RISD Research Perspectives | Lilly Manycolors

Lilly E. Manycolors, RISD Research, and Holly Gaboriault

Lilly E. Manycolors focuses on decolonization and cultural restoration as an interdisciplinary artist and scholar in the Global Arts & Cultures program. Manycolors is a mixed raced single mother and interdisciplinary artist creating pieces “that offer safer spaces for decolonial dialogue, intimate connections, and new ways of being” through artworks and performances. Awarded a Presidential Fellowship, her work explores the human condition and our relationships to Land through creation stories and indigenous mapping. Bringing forth elements of gender, transformation, trauma, and healing, she teases out the multiplicitous complexities found within one's identity. Through this work, Manycolors invites her audience to traverse vast emotional terrains and explore the depths of personhood together. This series highlights the intersections of art, design, theory, social justice and research in interviewed conversations within the RISD community, its faculty and students.

Written | Directed | Filmed | Edited by Holly Gaboriault [MA Global Arts + Cultures '21] Original Music by Antonio Forte; Andrew Grant; Tony Kenner
RISD Research Perspectives | Christopher Roberts, Schiller Family Assistant Professorship in Race and Art and Design

Christopher Roberts, RISD Research, and Holly Gaboriault

Arriving at RISD in 2019 as the inaugural SEI Research Fellow, Christopher Roberts is a Black Studies scholar concerned with Black geographies of memory and forgotten histories. Having worked as a museum professional in educational programming for over ten years, he continues to create dialogues untethering the entanglements of coloniality. His own intersectional research examining maps, museums, archives, and monuments pushes pedagogical boundaries as Assistant Professor of Theory + History of Art + Design and Experimental Foundation Studies, including recent projects focused on the history of Market House and 19th century objects made by Providence’s Gorham Manufacturing Company. In 2021, Roberts was named the first RISD Schiller Family Assistant Professor in Race in Art and Design, where he promotes student-based inquiries of race, gender, and power at the edges of Liberal Arts studies and studio design. This series highlights the intersections of art, design, theory, social justice and research in interviewed conversations within the RISD community, its faculty and students.

Written | Directed | Filmed | Edited by Holly Gaboriault [MA Global Arts + Cultures '21] Original Music by Mike Delick Music Supervision by Elementary Music
RISD Research Perspectives | Jackey Robinson

Jackey Robinson, Apparel Design Department, RISD Research, and Holly Gaboriault

Jackey Robinson is an architectural designer, maker, and educator exploring the social and communal aspects of architecture, specifically those in low-income, black, and queer spaces. From constructing urban strategies to the fabrication of architectural wearable pieces, Robinson questions how we as thinkers can expand perspectives for marginalized communities. His MArch thesis, "& The Category Is. . ." investigates architecture, apparel, and the underground Ballroom culture. He has served as Vice President of the RISD NOMA chapter (National Organization Of Minority Architects) and as a volunteer youth educator with DownCity Design. Wintersession 2022 Robinson brought his research interests to an architecture studio he taught RISD students exploring the elements of wearable architecture design, ballroom, and the figure. In Fall 2022, Robinson joined the RISD Apparel Design Department as a lecturer teaching the course, Identity/identities. This series highlights the intersections of art, design, theory, social justice and research in interviewed conversations within the RISD community, its faculty and students.

Written | Directed | Filmed | Edited by Holly Gaboriault [MA Global Arts + Cultures '21] Original Music by Mike Delick Music Supervision by Elementary Music.
RISD Research Perspectives | Hammad Abid

Hammad Abid, RISD Research, and Holly Gaboriault

From a lineage of Indian weavers steeped in textile traditions, Hammad Abid's MFA TX 21 material investigations situate concepts of place, displacement, and memory into the experimental weavings and jacquard. This series highlights the intersections of art, design, theory, social justice and research in interviewed conversations within the RISD community, its faculty and students.

Written | Directed | Filmed | Edited by Holly Gaboriault [MA Global Arts + Cultures '21] Original Music by Antonio Forte; Tony Kenner
RISD Research Perspectives | Rafael Attias

Rafael Attias, RISD Research, and Holly Gaboriault

Working within and on the peripheries of graphic design, art direction, filmmaking, soundtrack composition, curation, and art education, Rafael Attias, BFA GD 91 activates research across disciplines. For over 25 years, his academic and artistic practice explores the deeper dimensions of media + arts along with the intersections of sound, science and design. As a RISD alumnus with a BFA GD '91, Attias has taught throughout the departments of Illustration, Graphic Design, and Digital Media. Lately his explorations have veered into narrative film and soundtracking, ecological thinking, as well as designing and building musical instruments. In Spring 2021, he will explore ecological design with RISD students as a faculty lead for a new partnership initiative with the RISD-Hyundai Research Collaborative titled Adaptive Ecologies: Envisioning Futures. This series highlights the intersections of art, design, theory, social justice and research in interviewed conversations within the RISD community, its faculty and students.

Written | Directed | Filmed | Edited by Holly Gaboriault [MA Global Arts + Cultures '21] Original Music by Rafael Attias
RISD Research Perspectives | Jess Brown

Jessica Brown, RISD Research, and Holly Gaboriault

Jess Brown, aka the Lady J, is an entertainer, activist, artist, actor and general gal about town. Providence-based interdisciplinary artist Jess Brown, whose work merges design, civic engagement, identity, and spectacle. Brown creates “flexible environments that facilitate an inclusive space to explore, reflect, & discuss the challenges of social justice concerns in the US - including race politics, class, gender and overlays her own cultural commentary.” Brown discusses her 2020 collaborative VOTE mural with The Avenue Concept and her work with voter education and protest for human and civil rights. Working with Providence-based Haus of Glitter, Brown shares the research process for her 2019 interventional performance This is MY House at the RISD Museum of Art - a multi-sensorial encounter combining drumming, dance, and black representation in museum spaces. This series highlights the intersections of art, design, theory, social justice and research in interviewed conversations within the RISD community, its faculty and students.

Written | Directed | Filmed | Edited by Holly Gaboriault [MA Global Arts + Cultures '21] Original Music by Skylar Batz; Tony Kenner
RISD Research Perspectives | Tayana Fincher

Tayana Fincher, RISD Research, and Holly Gaboriault

RISD Research Perspectives features the Nancy Prophet Fellow, Tayana Fincher, and the curation of "It Comes in Many Forms: Islamic Art from the Collection," a multimedia exhibition presenting works that attest to the diversity of Islam and its expressions across time and geographies (October 23, 2020 - December 18, 2021). Fincher worked across departments to present textiles, decorative arts, and works on paper that show the breadth of Islamic artistic production and the diversity of Muslim cultures in its many creative expressions. From a medieval Persian ewer to contemporary clothing, the objects Fincher discusses explore migration, diasporas, and exchange. It allows the viewer to simultaneously question and encounter what makes an object Islamic, the authorship of practicing Muslims, and if the subject matter needs to include traditionally Islamic motifs. These objects suggest the difficulty of defining arts from a transnational religious viewpoint. This series highlights the intersections of art, design, theory, social justice and research in interviewed conversations within the RISD community, its faculty and students.

Written | Directed | Filmed | Edited by Holly Gaboriault [MA Global Arts + Cultures '21] Original Music provided by the RI Art Archive Project
RISD Research Perspectives | Mellon Faculty Fellowship, RISD Museum

Kate Irvin, Laurie Brewer, Matthew Bird, RISD Research, and Holly Gaboriault

Costume & Textiles Department curators Kate Irvin and Laurie Brewer join Industrial Design Senior critic Matthew Bird ID'81 to discuss the Museum's current Andrew W. Mellon Faculty Fellowship. The two-year appointments are designed to engage faculty members from across disciplines in research, teaching, and public engagement within a curatorial department of the Museum’s collection. In 2020, the RISD Museum was awarded a CARES grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to access, photograph and restore 900 costumes and objects in the Lucy Truman Aldrich Collection of Asian Art Masterworks. Bird speaks about his research methods during pandemic times and the items he has rediscovered through the lens of the Fellowship. This series highlights the intersections of art, design, theory, social justice and research in interviews and conversations within the RISD community, its faculty and students.

Written | Directed | Edited by Holly Gaboriault [MA Global Arts + Cultures '21]
Original Music by Tony Kenner
Music performances by Reed McLaren and Johnny Merrinick \ Mastered by Skylar Batz
RISD Research Perspectives | Jonathan Mark Jackson

Johnathan Mark Jackson, RISD Research, and Holly Gaboriault

As a lens-based artist "investigating the nature of embodied knowledge", Jonathan Mark Jackson, MFA PH 21 investigates worlds of recovery and history in his studies as a student in the MFA Photography program. Expanding on his knowledge of archives, biographical research, visual language, and landscapes, his current work gives voice to the unseen realities of black lives connected to historical museums and their objects throughout New England. “I cannot think of freedom without considering the legacies of chattel American slavery... This history is also ultimately tied to the essential functions of democracy.” Merging contemporary and historic scholarship, Jackson combines text and image into a dynamic relationship encouraging reinvigorated perspectives and vocalizations. This series highlights the intersections of art, design, theory, social justice and research in interviewed conversations within the RISD community, its faculty and students.

Written | Directed | Filmed | Edited by Holly Gaboriault [MA Global Arts + Cultures '21] Original Music provided by the RI Art Archive Project
RISD Research Perspectives | Felipe Shibuya, Nature Lab Hyundai Biological Programs Fellow

Felipe Shibuya, Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab, RISD Reaserch, and Holly Gaboriault

Felipe Shibuya is a Brazilian ecologist and interdisciplinary artist who studies the phenomenon of the colors unseen to the human eye both in the sight of hummingbirds and lab-grown bacteria. He translates his research into an art practice as a more accessible vehicle to bridging understanding science and human relationship to nature. Felipe continues his work of collaboration and communication as the Hyundai Biological Programs Fellow at the Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab for RISD's Hyundai Collaborative Project, a multi-semester cross-disciplinary partnership between Hyundai and RISD faculty and students to envision better ways to design sustainability for our planet and communities. This series highlights the intersections of art, design, theory, social justice and research in interviewed conversations within the RISD community, its faculty and students.

Written | Directed | Filmed | Edited by Holly Gaboriault [MA Global Arts + Cultures '21]
Original Music by Antonio Forte; Skylar Batz; Tony Kenner
RISD Research Perspectives | Wei Zhang

Wei Zhang, RISD Research, and Holly Gaboriault

Wei Zhang's BFA CR 21 work weaves in and around the intersections of design and craft fostering a practice within both Industrial Design and Ceramics. Fusing technology into traditional clay techniques, his pieces combine elements of furniture, sculpture, installation and experimentation. His forms are inspired from his travels, captured in his photography, from the mountains of Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, China to the interior volcanoes of Iceland. Zhang uses the vehicle of ceramics, seen everywhere in our daily life, as a tool to interrogate ceramic art, product design and the interactions of the human body. In Fall 2021, Zhang entered into the Global Innovation Design (MA) at Royal College of Art in London in hopes to further his aesthetic fusions with intentions to broaden and exceed the expectations of what clay can do. This series highlights the intersections of art, design, theory, social justice and research in interviewed conversations within the RISD community, its faculty and students.

Written | Directed | Filmed | Edited by Holly Gaboriault [MA Global Arts + Cultures '21] Original Music by Antonio Forte